The Air Classics Museum of Aviation at the Aurora Municipal Airport in Sugar Grove is set to open its doors for the 2022 season on Saturday after completing a strong season a year ago in the midst of the pandemic.
Thanks to its large number of outdoor exhibits, officials said attendance including tours last year was just over 2,500 visits, the largest total in the past five years.
Museum board member Kenneth Kwiatkowski, 64, said the museum basically remained open throughout the pandemic “other than for five months during the initial outbreak of COVID.”
“A lot of the museum is outdoors, so even when they had the indoor restrictions people could still go outside and see the aircraft,” Kwiatkowski said. “Other than that short period of time about two years ago, we’ve been open. In fact last year, we were open fully and had some of our largest attendance in years, both in regular attendance and tours. I think people wanted to get out and do stuff.”
New to many visitors this year is an indoor exhibit that Kwiatkowski said was put together by a member of the museum group.
“He put together a big glass case display of memorabilia and uniforms and such with the Czech Air Force which is kind of unique,” Kwiatkowski said. “We put it in at the very beginning of last year and a lot of people haven’t seen it yet.
“As the year goes on, there will be some other new items,” he said. “About two years ago, we acquired three aircraft from an air museum in Rhode Island that was closing and they’ve been sitting here on the property dismantled and at least one of them is in the process of being put back together.”
Kwiatkowski added that the goal is to have at least one of the aircraft reassembled this year and the other two the following year.
“With all the shutdowns and all the things of that nature, a lot of the people that were going to come out and put things together couldn’t do it until things finally opened up,” he said. “Now with the weather and things thawing out and hopefully not so muddy they are going to start rebuilding in the early spring.”
Another popular item returning is the mock-up of the Boeing 737 cockpit which was also unveiled last season.
The museum is located one mile west of the Aurora Municipal Airport entrance at 44W546 Route 30 and is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission for adults 16 to 61 years old is $10, seniors 62 years old and older get in for $7, and children 5 to 15 years old get in for $5. Kids 4 years old and younger get in free when accompanied by a parent.
Group tours are available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
Exhibits consist of indoor displays of aviation memorabilia from the 1930s to the present, including uniforms, engines and a full-size mockup of a Boeing 737 cockpit.
The outdoor flight line includes an RF-86 Sabre, a TA4-J Skyhawk, a F-105 Thunder Chief, a T-39 Sabre Liner, a F-4B Phantom II, an A&E Corsair II and a HU-1 Huey helicopter. The Huey and Corsair saw service in the Vietnam War. Also on the line are full-size replicas of a P-51 Mustang, a P-40 Warhawk, a P-47 Thunderbolt and a Messerschmitt BF-109.
For more information, call 630-466-0888 or go to airclassicsmuseum.org or find the museum on Facebook.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
